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The Kinetica File System (KiFS) is a file system interface that’s packaged with Kinetica. It provides a repository for users to store and make use of files within the database. KiFS can be leveraged by several Kinetica features: KiFS files can be referenced with the following URI: 
kifs://<kifs directory><kifs file>
For example, the following URI can be broken down into three components: 
kifs://data/geospatial/flights.csv
ComponentValue
Schemekifs://
Directorydata
File/geospatial/flights.csv
The unique KiFS file name, when referenced in the API, is the composite of the directory and file: 
data/geospatial/flights.csv

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Configuration

In the default configuration, KiFS is enabled and makes use of the standard Kinetica persistence scheme, distributing files among the cluster nodes. KiFS can also be configured to use any of the following for file storage:
  • Local shared storage, mounted and accessible to every node in the Kinetica cluster
  • Azure (Microsoft blob storage)
  • HDFS (Apache Hadoop Distributed File System)
  • S3 (Amazon S3 Bucket)
To configure KiFS to use one of these other storage types, update the /opt/gpudb/core/etc/gpudb.conf configuration file in the KiFS section with one of the following setups, and then restart the database.
Remote storage configuration parameters mirror those used for defining cold storage tiers. See Cold Storage Tier in the Configuration Reference for the full set of parameters.
Local Shared KiFS Storage Configuration Example
kifs.type=disk
kifs.base_path=/opt/gpudb/kifs
Azure KiFS Storage Configuration Example
kifs.type = azure
kifs.base_path = /gpudb/kifs
kifs.azure_container_name = kinetica
kifs.azure_storage_account_name = <azure account name>
kifs.azure_storage_account_key = <azure account key>
HDFS KiFS Storage Configuration Example
kifs.type = hdfs
kifs.base_path = /gpudb/kifs
kifs.hdfs_uri = hdfs://localhost:9000
kifs.hdfs_principal = kinetica
kifs.hdfs_use_kerberos = true
kifs.hdfs_kerberos_keytab = /opt/gpudb/krb5.keytab
S3 KiFS Storage Configuration Example
kifs.type = s3
kifs.base_path = /gpudb/kifs
kifs.wait_timeout = 10
kifs.connection_timeout = 30
kifs.s3_bucket_name = kifs-bucket
kifs.s3_aws_access_key_id = <aws access key>
kifs.s3_aws_secret_access_key = <aws secret key>

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SQL Interface

KiFS is able to be managed via SQL. See Files & Directories (KiFS) for details. Files can be uploaded to and downloaded from KiFS using Kinetica SQL (KiSQL) or any JDBC client by using the Kinetica JDBC Driver.

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Native API Support

The Kinetica Java API provides a streamlined interface for managing files & directories in KiFS. See KiFS API Support for details.